Improvement in shoe-tips



UNITED STATES PA ENT OFFICE- WILLIAM F. PRUS-HA, OF MARLBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN SHOE-TIES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 182,036, dated September 12, 1876; application filed August 12, 1876.

To all whom it may concern new and Improved Shoe-Tip; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and

' exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which my invention is represented by a perspective view.

The object of this invention is to improve the construction and quality of boot and shoe tips by the application and use of a material better adapted to the purpose than those heretofore employed; to which end the invention consists in a boot or shoe tip or protector com posed of the substance known to the trade as vulcanized fiber,molded to the proper shape, substantially as I will now proceed to set forth.

In the practical application of this invention I take the article well known in commerce as vulcanized fiber, and, by means of suitable dies or molds, I cut out blanks from sheets of the requisite thickness, and strike them up into the proper shape. These operations can all be performed without softening or otherwise treating the material.

It is not necessary that the tips should remain in the molds or dies but a moment or two, when they may be taken out and immediately used. The'boot or shoe may be pegged or screwed through them without danger of cracking or otherwise injuring them. They wear well, take any desired color and form,

and are'notliable to warp or deteriorate by wear or'exposure to the weather.

I am well aware that shoe-tips have been made from metal, leather, horn, hard rubber,

and rawhide; but in each case there are cer tain objections or defects, which my invention is designed to overcome, to Wit: First, the metal tips are unsightly, frequently become indented and misshapen, and in that condition cut out the upper leather of the shoe. Second,

the leather tip is liable to absorb moisture, and from the effects thereof become stretchedout of shape, giving the shoe the appearance of having been patched in a clumsy and bungling manner. Moreover, when this tip is wet it is easily abraded and worn out in. use. Third, the ordinary horn tip is defective, in that it is liable to become cracked and broken by the hard usage to which childrens shoes are subjected. The hard-rubber tip is open to the same objection as the horn tip. Fourth, the rawhide tip is objectionable, because it will not in use retain its form, but will become flattened out, and thus form no protection to the shoe.

By my invention all these objections and defects are'overcome. The tip is water-proof, and will not therefore become misshapen and drawn or warped out of form, like the leather tip and the rawhide tip. At the same time it will not become indented like the metal tip, neither will it crack and break like the ordinary horn and hard-rubber tips, but on the contrary it is sufficiently pliable and elastic to yield without breaking, to return to its original shape after having been bent, and to retain such shape, without breaking down, until the shoe is worn out. It will not abrade nor become worn when moistened, like a leather tip. All these results I have fully determined by'experiments and practical use, and therefore know them to be correct.

I further know, by practical tests and a long series of experiments, that the vulcanized fiber cannot be manufactured into shoe-tips by the ordinary means employed to produce the other tips above referred to. It could not, therefore, be knowuwithout experiment that this material could be manufactured into shoe-tips.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new- A boot or shoe tip or protector, composed of vulcanized fiber formed into the proper shape, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

WILLIAM F. PRUSHA. Witnesses:

FRANK MGKENNY, MELVLLLE OHURoH. 

